Reason Foundation

Reason Alert: Drew Carey on School Choice

February 22, 2008

Drew Carey Reason.tv Video on School Choice

McCain Has His Cake and Eats It, Too

Obamanomics vs. McCranky

New at Reason.com and Reason.org

Drew Carey Reason.tv Video on School ChoiceFighting to Free Kids From One of America's Worst Public Schools When looking for a symbol that epitomizes the way public schools are failing our kids, look no further than Locke High School in Watts. Approximately 75 percent of 9th graders entering Locke do not graduate in four years. And less than five percent of Locke students go on to attend four-year colleges. It's hard to learn when you fear for your life. In the 2003-2004 school year, there were three sex offenses, 17 robberies, 25 batteries, and 11 assaults with a deadly weapon at Locke. In a new Reason.tv video, Drew Carey tells the story of a group of parents and teachers rising up to free kids from this failing, violent school. Carey chronicles how the school's principal and a majority of Locke's teachers decide they've had enough and revolt against their powerful union and school district in hopes of giving these kids a better education. Over half of the school's tenured teachers signed a petition calling for Locke to be converted into a Green Dot charter school. In September 2007, the Los Angeles Board of Education agreed, voting 5-2 to let Green Dot schools take over Locke High School in the fall of 2008. See the full story here.»More Drew Carey Reason.tv Videos

McCain Has His Cake and Eats It, Too In an ironic twist, Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign may suffer the wrath of, and be limited by, his own campaign finance reform rules. Reason magazine's Katherine Mangu-Ward writes, "It's just a coincidence, of course, that McCain is throwing down on this issue right after the Obama campaign raised a massive $35 million during the last month. And when the conventional wisdom says that Obama is positioned to outspend the senator from Arizona...McCain accuses Obama of 'Washington doublespeak.' But on this particular issue, McCain is a master practitioner. Leaving aside previous legislative ducks and swerves, like his 1995 vote to abolish the public financing system at the presidential level altogether, McCain has had a complex relationship with the public financing of his own campaign in this cycle alone...Public funding has always been a chimera, and as his campaign's tactics reveal, no one knows that better than John McCain."»Matt Welch Book - McCain: Myth of a Maverick

Obamanomics vs. McCranky "First, a clumsy attack on the Fed for failing to cut interest rates 'faster' so as to stave off recession. Then, the sudden embrace of a repeatedly scorned 'no new taxes' pledge. On Monday, it hit me while watching [Sen. John ] McCain accept the endorsement of another liver-spotted former naval aviator: McCain is turning into George Herbert Walker Bush before our very eyes. If that is true, the crucial question becomes: Is Barack Obama more Michael Dukakis or Bill Clinton? Don't laugh. The answer is far more salient to who becomes the next President than feverish declarations that Obama in the heir to JFK or that McCain is really Winston Churchill." - Reason magazine's Jeff Taylor says "voters absolutely must prefer him on substance, not style, for McCain to win" and Sen. Obama's economic plan has started giving McCain the tools he needs to shore up his base and lure centrists and independents from Obama.»Hillary Mortgages the Future